In a completely unexpected turn of events on SAS Australia, the instructors made the decision to sack two contestants from the show.
While recruits have so far left voluntarily, the instructors decided some lagging behind had to leave. They kicked off Candice Warner, who was a fan favourite, and the villain of the show, Firass Dirani.
Fans took to social media to express their annoyance with Warner being ousted, who they argued was showing impressive strength and was only getting better.
On Tuesday night’s episode, the recruits had to submerge themselves into freezing water through a hole in the ice, and were challenged to respond correctly to questions the instructors threw at them.
RELATED: Candice Warner takes another swipe at Roxy Jacenko
Warner was unable to recall the license plate number of a truck that is parked outside their barracks, and in doing so, did not succeed in the task. She was forced to continue to spend extra time in the freezing cold water as punishment.
Fans were livid that the mother-of-three was kicked off the show and expressed their feelings online.
“Candice killed it she could have finished the course she is so strong,” one wrote.
“Kinda crazy Candice got kicked out,” another agreed.
“I know we don’t see everything, but I reckon Candice has been really hard done by here,” a third complained.
“Terrible decision to send @CandiceWarner31 home,” said another viewer.
“As convoluted as her backstory is, I don’t think @CandiceWarner31 deserved to be sent home,” another fan wrote.
It’s clear that Warner was a fan favourite and that viewers were enjoying watching her.
“Can’t fathom the decision to send @CandiceWarner31 home from (SAS Australia),” one person wrote. “Such a great job and role model for her girls. Hope she gets the recognition she deserves from here on in.”
RELATED: ‘Goes good’: Candice grilled on sex life
Since leaving the show, the former ironwoman has spoken out about the X-rated scandal from her past that followed her on the show, calling it “sad”.
During her time on the show, she was repeatedly grilled about her incident with Sonny Bill Williams at Sydney’s Clovelly Hotel in 2007, when the pair were photographed by a member of the public in the bathroom together.
The mum-of-three opened up in a frank interview on news.com.au’s Not Here To Make Friends podcast and addressed the big difference between her interrogations on the show and those of the other celebrities.
“I did feel some people’s interrogations were a little bit softer than others,” she said. “They (the SAS staff) dug a lot deeper with me than some other people. And they brought up a lot more in mine than in others. So it is what it is and I was proud of the way I dealt with it, and I handled the questions the way I wanted to. But at the same time, the laptop didn’t come out for everyone.”
SAS staff were filmed reading news stories about the athlete on the internet before they grilled her with detailed questions about the bathroom incident and her cricketer husband David Warner’s ball tampering scandal. The interrogations of co-stars such as rugby player Nick “Honey Badger” Cummins and The Bachelorette’s Ali Oetjen sidestepped major scandals from their pasts.
RELATED: Moment that finally broke Candice Warner
“It’s sad when that (the bathroom incident) had to be the main focus,” she said of her time on the show. “My journey at that time … I was in a position where I almost took my own life and coming back from that, I think, is a far more important story than the storyline they were (going for).”
Earlier in the series, the mum-of-three revealed she was still haunted by her liaison with football star Williams – who was celebrating a win with his Bulldogs teammates when the pair hooked up.
“It is something I am not proud of but something I can never take back,” she said.
“I put myself in a situation where I shouldn’t have and because of that I brought embarrassment (and) shame to my family.”
The incident has followed Warner in her life. During the Australian cricket team’s ill-fated tour of South Africa in 2018, when the ball tampering scandal occurred, she was mocked by fans wearing Williams face masks at the second Test in Port Elizabeth.
“There were incidents in South Africa where people were trying to make fun of me, mock me. Belittle me in front of my family,” she said.
“Because of an incident that happened in the past. And they think it’s funny.”
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